The European Union on Tuesday gave Google a month to come up with detailed proposals to resolve an investigation into complaints that it used its power to block rivals.

EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia was met with on Tuesday Google CEO Eric Schmidt and said that Europe could be close to settling with Google over a long-standing anti-trust investigation, urging the US internet giant to come forward with new proposals.

He added that the two sides had "substantially reduced our differences regarding possible ways to address each of the four competition concerns expressed by the European Commission," since talks began in July.

The commissioner said is now expecting Google to come forward with a detailed commitment text in January 2013.

Almunia wants Google to correct its behaviour as regards to: prioritizing its own links in search results; copying content from rivals; accompanying ads to search results; and prioritizing its own online ads business AdWords.

According to reports, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission could drop their investigation into Google without requiring any major change in how the company does business.